Ubuntu – Is Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition compatible with Ubuntu

hardwareinspiron

I want to buy a Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition. On ubuntu.com, it says that Dell Inspiron 15R will work properly. But the special edition has some special issues.

I will list the hardware:

  • 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3612QM processor (6M Cache, up to 3.1 GHz)
  • 15.6" Full High Definition (1080p) LED Display
  • 8GB2 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
  • 750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
  • 8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
  • AMD Radeon™ HD 7730M 2GB
  • Built-in Skullcandy™ stereo speakers and Waves MaxxAudio® 4 technology

Will it have any problem?

Best Answer

I've just finished installing Kubuntu 12.04.1 LTS on this machine. Notes (unfortunately, I spent about 14 hours getting this to work, so I'm attempting to pull together the various pieces that seemed to work, rather than having a tested final procedure). In short, no, this is not a problem-free installation:

  • If you want to use the SSD as a drive in Linux

    • In windows, search control panel for "Intel", in the Intel Smart Response Technology panel, disable acceleration entirely
    • Note: this is only if you intend to use the SSD as a regular drive in Kubuntu, if you actually use Windows you may wish to keep it enabled as a cache for Windows, but that is untested.

  • WARNING: Do not disable SRT in the bios, or your windows will become unbootable (it will blue-screen)

  • WARNING: Do not resize the Windows 7 partition with regular partition editors, as they will move the partition to incorrect offsets and windows will spend an hour moving them back only to have them junked. I wound up having to delete the windows partition and do a factory restore onto a new (smaller) partition to get Windows to boot

  • you need to enable dmraid in order for the Ubiquity installer to see the hard drive for installation

    • Boot Kubuntu Live CD/USB-Key, choose "Try Kubuntu"

    • Start a console

    • sudo modprobe dm_mod

    • sudo dmraid -ay

    • Install Kubuntu

    • WARNING: a bug in Kubuntu's installer means that it will select /dev/sdb as the default MBR target, you must select /dev/sda

    • WARNING: do not attempt (as suggested in various locations) using "apt-get remove dmraid", as while that allows you to install Kubuntu, it winds up installing the MBR to the wrong location (it does not get used when the controller is in "STR" mode)

  • Switchable AMD Graphics (Intel + AMD)

    • Intel graphics work fine out-of-the-box

    • To enable AMD graphics you need at least the AMD fglrx 12.9 beta, as the switchable graphics don't work on the stable releases. Directly downloaded from AMD, do not use the install-fglrx-debian.sh script, as it installs a slightly older copy that does not recognize the card in the machine. Use the "build a deb" option in the installer. Run the aticonfig --initial script, reboot to pick up the new driver, run amdcccle to confirm that it worked.

    • Note: performance of the AMD graphics does not appear particularly good, glxgears shows 800fps or so, so there may be no actual advantage to installing the support package

  • Sensors/hardware

    • install lm-sensors, run sensors-detect, allow it to add coretemp to the boot modules (to get some temperature monitoring)

    • There is no fan-speed control, so expect your fans to run continuously (and they are noisy)

  • I do not see 802.11/n access points, though the driver claims to be 802.11/n capable

Everything else seems to work so far:

  • webcam
  • HDMI Video output
  • regular wifi (b/g)
  • keyboard and trackpad
  • bluetooth
  • speed-step (cpu frequency scaling)
  • basic suspend on lid-close/resume on open, but with a scary-looking "failed to resume" message before it comes back up, likely due to some hardware not resuming properly

Untested:

  • SSD
  • Hardline networking
  • Card reader
  • HDMI Audio Output
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